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Summary

When first published in 1947, A Short History of Operaimmediately achieved international status as a classic in the field. Now, more than five decades later, this thoroughly revised and expanded fourth edition informs and entertains opera lovers just as its predecessors have.The fourth edition incorporates new scholarship that traces the most important developments in the evolution of musical drama. After surveying anticipations of the operatic form in the lyric theater of the Greeks, medieval dramatic music, and other forerunners, the book reveals the genre's beginnings in the seventeenth century and follows its progress to the present day.A Short History of Operaexamines not only the standard performance repertoire, but also works considered important for the genre's development. Its expanded scope investigates opera from Eastern European countries and Finland. The section on twentieth-century opera has been reorganized around national operatic traditions including a chapter devoted solely to opera in the United States, which incorporates material on the American musical and ties between classical opera and popular musical theater. A separate section on Chinese opera is also included.With an extensive multilanguage bibliography, more than one hundred musical examples, and stage illustrations, this authoritative one-volume survey will be invaluable to students and serious opera buffs. New fans will also find it highly accessible and informative. Extremely thorough in its coverage, A Short History of Operais now more than ever the book to turn to for anyone who wants to know about the history of this art form.

Author Biography

Hermine Weigel Williams is Scholar-in-Residence at Hamilton College.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

ix

Preface to the Fourth Edition

xi

Introduction

1

(8)

PART 1 Music and Drama to the End of the Sixteenth Century

1 The Lyric Theater of the Greeks

9

(4)

2 Medieval Dramatic Music

13

(8)

3 The Immediate Forerunners of Opera

21

(20)

PART 2 The Seventeenth Century

4 The Beginnings: Opera in Florence and Mantea

41

(19)

5 Other Early Seventeenth-Century Italian Court Operas, Including the First Comic Operas in Florence and Rome

60

(23)

6 Italian Opera in the Later Seventeenth Century in Italy

83

(24)

7 Seventeenth-Century Italian Opera in German-Speaking Lands

107

(14)

8 Early German Opera

121

(11)

9 Opera in France from Lully to Charpentier

132

(15)

10 Opera in England

147

(18)

PART 3 The Eighteenth Century

11 Masters of the Early Eighteenth Century

165

(38)

12 Opera Seria: General Characteristics

203

(22)

13 Opera Seria: The Composers

225

(28)

14 The Operas of Gluck

253

(19)

15 The Comic Opera of the Eighteenth Century

272

(33)

16 The Operas of Mozart and His Viennese Contemporaries

305

(30)

PART 4 The Nineteenth Century

17 The Turn of the Century

335

(18)

18 Grand Opera

353

(16)

19 Opéra Comique, Operetta, and Lyric Opera

369

(14)

20 Italian Opera of the Primo Ottocento: Rossini, Donizetti, Verdi, and Their Contemporaries

383

(34)

21 The Romantic Opera in Germany

417

(19)

22 The Operas of Wagner

436

(37)

23 The Later Nineteenth Century: France, Italy, Germany, and Austria

473

(34)

PART 5 Other National Traditions of Opera from the Seventeenth to the Early Twentieth Centuries

24 National Traditions of Opera

507

(70)

PART 6 The Twentieth Century

25 Introduction Opera in France and Italy

577

(34)

26 Opera in the German-Speaking Countries

611

(51)

27 National Opera in Russia and Neighboring Countries; Central and Eastern Europe; Greece and Turkey; the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland; Spain, Portugal, and Latin America